LOCAL UNION NO. 600, ETC. v. Ford Motor Co., Civ. No. 11081.

• Decision Date: 05 June 1953
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 11081.
• Parties: LOCAL UNION NO. 600, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, UAW-CIO et al. v. FORD MOTOR CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

113 F. Supp. 834

LOCAL UNION NO. 600, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, UAW-CIO et al. v. FORD MOTOR CO.

Civ. No. 11081.

United States District Court E. D. Michigan, S. D.

June 5, 1953.

Goodman, Crockett, Eden & Robb and Ernest Goodman, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs.

William T. Gossett, Atty., Dearborn, Mich., Malcolm L. Denise, Duane D. Freese and Joseph A. O'Reilly, Dearborn, Mich., of counsel, for defendants.

THORNTON, District Judge.

This is a motion to dismiss a bill of complaint which, in substance, alleges the following:

That the plaintiffs, and each of them, are citizens of the state of Michigan, and that the defendant is a Delaware corporation having its principal office, manufacturing plant and facilities within the jurisdiction of this Court, and that the matter in controversy is in excess of $3,000.

The jurisdiction of the subject matter of this suit is conferred upon this Court under Article III, § 2 of the Constitution of the United States; Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, § 18, Tit. 29 U.S.C.A. § 185; 61 Stat. 156, Tit. III, § 301, and Rule 23(a) (1) and (3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.; that the plaintiffs are authorized to sue, and do sue, in behalf of themselves and all other similarly situated employees which constitute a class so numerous as to make it impractical to set forth their names herein, but with respect to whom the character of the right herein asserted presents common questions of law and fact, and common relief is sought.

That the individual plaintiffs are members of the International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW-CIO) known as the "International Union"; that the International Union is a voluntary unincorporated labor organization of employees employed in the automobile and related industries, including the plants of the defendant, and has its headquarters in the city of Detroit and state of Michigan; that the members of the International Union at each plant generally are organized into a Local Union, which Local Union is affiliated with, and chartered by, the International Union. Those Local Unions which are composed of employees of defendant are further grouped, for purposes of collective bargaining, into a department of the International Union called the National Ford Department. That the individual plaintiffs herein constitute all the officers, members of the Executive Board, and chairman of the occupational and building units of plaintiff, Local Union No. 600 of the International Union and, together with the other similarly situated employees on whose behalf this suit is instituted, constitute the entire membership of said Local Union. That Local Union No. 600 is the largest local union in the world, with headquarters at Dearborn, Michigan, and its membership is composed entirely of production, maintenance and construction, transportation and tool and die workers employed by defendant at the Rouge Plant, and engaged in the production of motor vehicles and/or automotive parts and equipment for interstate and world commerce. That the defendant, Ford Motor Company, is one of the oldest, largest and most prosperous producers of automobiles, motor vehicles and automotive parts in the world, its headquarters and principal manufacturing plant is River Rouge, located in Dearborn, Michigan, this plant being the largest single manufacturing unit in the world, constituting a completely integrated production system producing finished automobiles and motor vehicles from basic raw products. In addition, the defendant company has other plants and subsidiaries located throughout the United States and in the principal countries of the world.

For many years prior to the present time, the Rouge Plant has been the source of employment for approximately 80,000 hourly-rated workers who live with their families in the Greater Detroit area, including surrounding communities inhabited mainly by Ford workers and their families, and that the economic life, growth and development of this Greater Detroit area has been, and is, dependent in substantial measure upon the continuation of the high level of production activities of the Rouge Plant, and the affording of continued and substantial employment to the plaintiffs, and to thousands of other residents who reside in this area who work at, or in connection with, said plant, and that any substantial decrease in the operations of the Rouge Plant is immediately reflected in increased relief rolls, increased unemployment compensation claims, decreased retail sales, and a lowering of public morale in the Greater Detroit area, all of which has been the subject of official notice by several of the governing bodies of the communities which comprise the Greater Detroit area, as evidenced by certain official resolutions around these communities that have been attached to the bill of complaint.

That the defendant company has a long history of opposition to organized labor and to the organization of its employees, including the use of violent and other unlawful means to destroy and break up organizations of its employees, as indicated by certain decisions of the National Labor Relations Board which this Court is requested to judicially notice.

That since June 1941, following an election and subsequent certification of the International Union by the National Labor Relations Board as bargaining representative for defendant's employees, there has existed a collective bargaining agreement governing the wages, hours and working conditions agreed upon and entered into between the defendant and the International Union and Local Union No. 600 for the benefit of plaintiffs, which said agreement has been amended and renewed from time to time; the most recent renewal occurring on or about September 4, 1950, and, together with amendments thereto, is now in effect and, by its terms, is to remain in effect until June 1, 1955, and for successive yearly periods thereafter unless terminated as therein provided, a copy of said agreement being attached to the bill of complaint.

That in the negotiations which preceded and resulted in the execution of the current agreement, the plaintiffs herein were represented by the National Ford Department of the International Union and by a bargaining committee composed of representatives of local unions in the various plants of the Ford Motor Company, including Local Union No. 600. The current agreement was submitted to, and approved by, a majority of the members of Local Union No. 600 of the International Union, who were employed by the defendant company, and upon the basis of, and by reason of, the representations made by the defendant, as hereinafter set forth.

That under the terms of the current agreement, plaintiffs obtained and became entitled to, and received, certain valuable rights including, by way of illustration, agreed-upon wage rates, security of tenure in their employment classification at said Rouge Plant, the right to employment in accordance with seniority at said plant, paid vacations, paid holidays, pensions, insurance and health benefits, all as specified in the said current agreement, many of which said rights to other than wages and seniority were agreed upon by the parties and accepted by plaintiffs in lieu of wage increases; and any permanent cessation of employment of the plaintiffs, or any of them, by the defendant will result in a loss to plaintiffs of the aforesaid rights, and any replacement of plaintiffs, or any of them, by means of the employment of new employees at new plants of defendant, will result in substantial savings of large sums of money and profits by the defendant.

That upon information and belief, at the time the current agreement was negotiated, and ever since the effective date of said current agreement, it was, and has been, mutually agreed and understood by the parties hereto, and was an implied condition of the agreement and an integral part thereof, that the defendant company would, in good faith, maintain the same volume of production and the same operations and facilities as existed at the Rouge Plant at the time of the negotiation and execution of the current agreement, and would not intentionally transfer or contract out any of the productive activities in that plant so as to substantially reduce the employment rights and opportunities of the plaintiffs, or jeopardize any of the rights which would accrue to the plaintiffs under the current agreement; that the aforesaid mutual agreement and understanding was, and is, an essential condition of the current agreement, and was part of the consideration therefor moving from the defendant to the plaintiffs; and that the contracting parties, by necessary implication, recognized that such contract rights as the wage rates, the paid holidays, paid vacations, seniority, retirement, pensions and numerous other benefits agreed upon in said current agreement, have value for the plaintiffs only in the continued employment of plaintiffs by defendant at the Rouge Plant.

Further, upon information and belief, the plaintiffs relate that in the period since the execution of the current agreement, and continuing until the time of the filing of the bill of complaint, the defendant has inaugurated, and is presently following, a deliberate, systematic and intentional policy of permanently decentralizing and transferring substantial portions of its production operations formerly performed by the plaintiffs in the Rouge Plant to other plants of the defendant located outside the Greater Detroit area, and outside of the state of Michigan; that such transfers have been and are being carried out at such an accelerated rate that thousands of Rouge Plant production, maintenance, transportation and tool and die workers have lost their employment with defendant, and additional large numbers of these plaintiffs are threatened with...